


Friends

by theLiterator



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Comment Fic, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Male-Female Friendship, Pre-Slash, Secret Identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-20
Updated: 2015-04-20
Packaged: 2018-03-24 23:16:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3787975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theLiterator/pseuds/theLiterator
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Commentfic for <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/3396596">Partners.</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	Friends

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Partners](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3396596) by [wordswehavesaid](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wordswehavesaid/pseuds/wordswehavesaid). 



> So I was commenting on the great fic linked above in the "Inspired by" line, and the awesome author [wordswehavesaid](http://archiveofourown.org/users/wordswehavesaid) came up with this: Haha, if Joe did he'd get to precinct and realize Barry never went there, which would be awkward! But I'm still glad you loved it!
> 
> To which I replied with this notfic, which I should probably write out, but I won't:
> 
> Joe: "Did you see a guy wearing pajamas and a coat run through here?"  
> Everyone: "No?"  
> Joe: **consults gps tracker he had implanted in Barry the second GPS was approved for paramilitary and police use back in the 90s.**  
> Joe: "Does anyone know what's at this address?"  
> Cop: "Oh, that's Verdant. A night club owned by Oliver Queen."  
> Joe: "I need a ride."  
> Cop: **Shrugs**
> 
> **Cue Joe frantically searching the club for Barry, only for him to emerge from a storage closet wearing actual clothes and trailed by Oliver Queen.**
> 
> Joe: "Work emergency?" **raised eyebrow**  
> Barry: "Uh, hey Joe. You've... met Oliver?"  
> Joe: "Actually, I have not. Oliver Queen, I take it? I think I'm going to buy him a drink. Steve's in a car outside, go wait for me there."  
> Barry: "Joe I--"  
> Oliver-as-Ollie: "It's fine, Bear, it's just a drink!"  
> Barry: "He's a cop! A *detective*!"  
> Oliver-as-Ollie: "Go on, I'll see you tomorrow!"
> 
> From there, I just sort of, wrote comment!fic, which I am immortalizing here forever and always.
> 
> It will make literally no sense if you haven't read the fic Partners up to Chapter 17, so go do that first!

"I'm not going to see him tomorrow, am I?" Barry asked the windshield dully.

Steve was a beat cop who mostly worked second shift, and he was staring at Barry incredulously. "You're--" he shook his head. "Oliver Queen is having drinks with Detective West?"

"Yes," Barry muttered, slumping in his seat. "Joe thinks I'm sleeping with him."

"Are you?" Steve asked, way too interested in the answer, and Barry tried to give him the Detective West trademark unimpressed glare, but he suspected it fell far short.

"It's complicated, okay?" Barry settled on. "Why did you even drive him?"

"Looked more interesting than the inside of my apartment," Steve said, shrugging.

"Huh," Barry said. Then he sat straight up. "Why am I waiting in the car? I'm an adult!"

Steve looked at him. "Me too," he whispered.

"It's settled then," Barry said.

Steve nodded, then looked sharply at Barry when he opened the door.

"Dude, do you really want to go--"

"Steve, are you really going to turn down the opportunity to _save Ollie Queen_?" Barry asked.

Steve looked torn for a second, then his face twisted into an expression of grim determination. "No. Let's do this."

Barry grinned.

***

Oliver was looking grimly Hood-like when Barry and Steve found him and Joe at the bar, and Barry slipped between them, forcing Joe back a step as he brushed against him. Oliver leaned into Barry's back, warm and muscular and utterly _comfortable_ , which was a thought that Barry would analyze _later_. By himself. Without Joe's interference.

"Thought you were waiting in the car, Bear," Joe said, swirling the contents of his glass and not sipping it. Oliver's glass was empty, and Barry had a sudden image of him looking Joe in the eye and knocking it back. The thought of Oliver, of all people, needing liquid courage for a conversation with someone about a relationship he wasn't in, made Barry's stomach twist in knots-- another thing to worry about later.

"Changed my mind," Barry said. "Hey, Oliver, this is Steve, Steve, Oliver."

"Steve," Oliver said, offering his hand around Barry so Barry couldn't have pulled out of his personal space, even if he'd wanted to. "As a citizen of Starling City, I appreciate all the fine work you and men like you do to keep it safe."

It seemed like overkill to Barry, but as always with Ollie Queen, it had the effect of turning Steve into a grinning, charmed, future best friend of Ollie's. No wonder the man had a reputation miles wide and fathoms deep.

"Barry, since you're here," Joe said. "You mind telling me what you were doing in that closet with Oliver?"

"It's not to code!" Barry blurted. "He-- Detective Lance found out it wasn't up to code and Oliver asked for help--"

"So you're a building inspector now?" Joe asked, tilting his glass in Barry's direction.

Oliver leaned down and rested his chin on Barry's shoulder. "He inspects _my_ buildings," he said with a grin in his voice and a faked little drunken sway.

Barry wrapped his hand around Oliver's forearm. "Excuse me. I'm going to talk with my friend _alone_ now," he said, and didn't wait for a response from Steve or Joe before bundling Oliver back into a quiet corner. They couldn't risk a return to the Foundry, not with Joe watching them, and Oliver made things a thousand times worse by bodily pressing Barry into the corner and tipping his head down so they were almost touching.

"You don't need to rescue me," Oliver said. "I've dealt with my share of angry parents before."

Barry opened his mouth to protest, and Oliver shook his head sharply. "Including cops. I've dated Sara _and_ Laurel."

"But you aren't dating me," Barry pointed out, and Oliver smiled a little grimly, and shook his head.

"No, I'm not; but I am leading you into a life of crime and double-identities, which isn't as different to parents as you seem to think. Trust me, Bear- Barry. I can handle Joe."

"I do trust you," Barry said, and then he sighed. The problem was, he trusted Joe too.

"Good, that makes this easier then," Oliver said, and then he grabbed Barry's chin and forced his head back, and swarmed in for an invasive, overpowering kiss. Barry's hand's flexed uselessly in Oliver's shirt, more because he didn't _want_ to push him away than because he _couldn't_ , and then Oliver was drawing back, and Joe came up and hit him across the jaw.

"Come on, Barry," Joe said, collecting Steve with a single furious glance at the bar, and Barry knew fighting at this point would just make things a thousand times worse.

Still, when they got out to Steve's car, he turned to Joe and demanded, cursing for probably the first time since he'd graduated from college, and for the first time ever in front of Joe, "What. The. Hell?"

Joe shook his head. "Barry, just get in the car, please."

"Yeah," Steve said. "I'll take you home. Detective West? It was nice to meet you, but I think you should probably get a cab tonight." He looked over at Barry. "And a hotel."

"No, it's fine, thanks Steve. Joe, that's-- you're not--"

"You didn't want him kissing you," Joe said. "You're not sleeping with him, but he wants me to think you are. He's a manipulative, controlling asshole, and if you think for one second I'm going to let that stand--Barry, what does he have on you? I'll make some calls, we can fix this."

Barry shook his head. "It's not what he has on me, Joe, it's-- it's what I have on him."

Steve dropped his keys, and Barry glanced over at him. "Sorry! It's just-- you have blackmail material on Oliver Queen? Why are you still working? You could have, like, a mansion! Girls! Alcohol and video games for the rest of your life!" He was waving his arms now, and Barry kind of had to wonder what had driven Steve to be a cop if what he actually wanted was a life of luxury.

"It's not that kind of blackmail," Barry said. His phone buzzed in his pocket; he pulled it out to glance at it and bit his lip at the message.

_Actual emergency this time. TYT._

"I have to go," Barry said, and he darted back into the club.

***

"So, what is it this time?" Barry asked. Oliver was already suited up and slinging his quiver over his shoulder.

"I've got a lead on the man who took out that hit on the Moores," Oliver said. "I've got to act _now_ , and Felicity and Dig are--"

"No, I totally understand--"

"So do I," Joe said. "You know, if you're a secret vigilante running an illegal operation out of the basement of a nightclub, you might consider putting a lock on that door. And not kissing my kid without his permission."

Barry froze. Oliver didn't. "I've got to get this guy before he gets to Laurel and Tommy," Oliver said. "You can arrest me when I get back."

"Probably not enough phone calls in the world to fix this one, huh, Joe?" Barry asked once the silence go to be too much.

Joe sighed and made his way over to the mats where he sat down heavily and patted the spot next to him. Obediently, Barry joined him. "What on earth are you thinking, Barry?" Joe asked. Barry fiddled with the bluetooth earpiece for a few moments, then put it in.

Oliver would be able to hear his half of the conversation, but he'd be able to hear Oliver if he needed any help. Small trade-offs, really.

"He's doing good in this city," Barry said. "He's a hero."

"He's a murderer," Joe said. It was stark, and it was detached, and it was cold, and it was _true_.

"He's improving," Barry said softly.

"And is that really a good enough reason to help him, Bear? What if it had been Detective Lance walking down those steps. Or Steve? What then?"

"Then, then I guess I'd be in jail, and probably for a very long time. But--"

"You really miss your dad this much?" Joe asked, and Barry had to stand up, walk over to the computer banks, pull up the security footage of Oliver's destination for something to do.

"This isn't about my dad," Barry said with a forced, detached calm. Oliver sucked in a breath on the line, but he didn't say anything. "It's about saving people."

"Some people can't be saved, Bear," Joe said, coming up behind him and resting a hand on his shoulder.

"I have to try, Joe. He's _good_ , I know he is." He turned slightly to look Joe in the eye.

"Oh, Barry," Joe said, tugging Barry in for a hug. "Tell him he's got a guy ten feet away on the left."

"Oliver?" Barry said "You--"

"I heard him," Oliver said. "I've got this."

The sounds of flesh hitting flesh were starting to grow familiar. 

"You have an amazing heart, Barry," Joe said. "I'm just really worried that this time it's gotten you into trouble you can't get yourself out of."

"I am too," Barry mumbled into Joe's chest. "But it's my own fault if I did. I'm-- I'm okay with that."

Joe rubbed his back one last time and then drew away. "Keep him safe, Barry."

"I will. I do."

"I know," Joe said. "Iris and I will be out of your hair tomorrow."

Barry should have replied to that, something polite about not being a bother, but instead he snapped out at Oliver that there was someone behind him, and when that was taken care of, Joe was gone.

 

***

Barry tried to tiptoe in when he got home, later than he liked with Iris and Joe waiting on him, but it worked about as well as it had the few times he'd tried it in high school.

Iris was sitting on the couch, and Joe was drinking coffee.

"Everything okay?" Joe asked, and Barry nodded.

"Yeah," he said. "Yeah, no, we're good. Everything is good."

Joe nodded, set his coffee aside, and disappeared into the guest room.

"Right," Iris said. "Spill."

Barry opened his mouth, prepared to lie, then snapped it shut and shook his head. "It's complicated," he decided after a few long moments.

"Is it?" Iris asked.

Barry sighed and sat down on the couch and ducked his head.

"I was in love with you," he said, because that was where 'complicated' began. "I've been in love with you since before my mom died. And I thought I'd never be able to fall in love with anyone else."

Iris blew out a breath. "Yeah, that's pretty damned complicated. Good thing Dad put on coffee." She stood up and fixed two mugs, Barry's still exactly right.

When she sat back down, she did so right up against Barry, and he bent to kiss her cheek, to smell her hair, familiar still, which was as reassuring as her warmth.

"So what changed?" she asked.

Barry took a sip of coffee and considered what to tell her, deciding, ultimately, on the truth. He had meant to work this out tonight anyway.

"Oliver Queen," Barry admitted. 

He felt instantly, immeasureably better, and Iris's quiet exclamation of "Oh. My. God." was worth the price of the admission.

"So," she said. "When will you be marrying him, you gold digger?"

"I can't marry him," Barry said. "He's... he's very complicated."

"I should hope so. My Bear deserves someone of character, conscience, and at least three brain cells to rub together."

Barry was startled into chuckling. "Yeah, he-- he has that, no matter what the magazines say."

"Good," Iris said. "I'm happy for you. I thought--" She shook her head and smiled. "I was afraid you'd never get over being unhappily in love with me. I'm glad you found someone."

"Joe hit him," Barry admitted.

Iris laughed, stifling it in the palm of her hand and staring guiltily at the door between them and Joe.

"He was defending my honor. Two more alpha males, I've never--"

"Stop it," Iris hissed, grinning and swatting him. "You're killing me! He _didn't_."

"He did."

"Oh my god, that is perfect. Oh! Oh, what if someone got it on camera, oh my god!" she said, falling off the couch and shaking with the force of her laughter, suppressed as it was.

Barry started laughing too.


End file.
